Does honey bee sting alarm pheromone give orientation information to defensive bees?

We tested compounds found in honey bee, Apis mellifera L,., sting alarm phe romone for their roles in releasing behavioral responses, with a focus on t he relative importance of chemotaxis and motion of the target in the locali zation response. Some compounds in the blend have specialized functions. Be nzyl acetate released only flight behavior, whereas three compounds (l-buta nol, l-octanol, and hexyl acetate) caused only the recruitment response. Ot her compounds (1-hexanol, butyl acetate, iso-pentyl acetate, and 2-nonanol) acted in more than one behavioral context. Octyl acetate was the most effe ctive compound in allowing bees to locate targets, but did not recruit or r elease flight behavior. Stationary octyl acetate sources were located by fl ying bees, indicating that this pheromone component elicits a chemotactic r esponse. However, localization of a target is due primarily to the motion o f the target; the alarm pheromone components release searching behavior for a moving object and are relatively unimportant in target localization.